NFL exec: Team in London 'clearly' not happening soon

Sep. 18, 2013
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Ben Roethlisberger, quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers, poses for photographers, backdropped by the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben in central London, Tuesday, July 2, 2013. Pittsburgh Steelers will play against the Minnesota Vikings at Wembley Stadium in London, on Sunday Sept. 29, 2013. / Lefteris Pitarakis, AP

by Tom Pelissero, USA TODAY Sports

by Tom Pelissero, USA TODAY Sports

The NFL's British fan base has grown rapidly since the international series began at Wembley Stadium in 2007. But the league's head of international business isn't ready to say the NFL is close to putting a team in London full-time.

"We'd like to continue to grow our fan base even more aggressively," Chris Parsons, the NFL's senior vice president of international, told USA TODAY Sports this week.

"And whether that's doubling it from where it is today â?? I'm not entirely sure what the exact number is â?? I certainly would want us to be even bigger in the UK before we made a move like that, which clearly wouldn't be something that would happen in the near term."

For the first time, the international series will put two games in London this year, starting with the Minnesota Vikings "hosting" the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sept. 29.

The Jacksonville Jaguars â?? who have agreed to play a "home" game in London each season through 2016 and could be the main target if the NFL considers moving a team â?? face the San Francisco 49ers on Oct. 27.

Tickets for both games at Wembley Stadium, which holds 84,500 for American football, were virtual sellouts within two weeks, Parsons said. A restricted number of "season tickets" that gave fans tickets for both games were the first to go.

"The data that we've collected over the past four years really has shown our fan base has grown exponentially," said Parsons, a UK native who grew up listening to NFL games on Armed Forces Radio and has been working with the league for five years.

"When we stack ourselves up against sports in the UK, depending on what metric you're looking at, we've gone from well outside the top 10 to now inside the top 10 in terms of fan numbers and in terms of viewing figures."

Lester Bagley, the Vikings' vice president of public affairs and stadium development, said data shows the fan base has doubled since 2007, with 11.3 million people in the UK (population: about 63.1 million as of the 2011 census) now identifying themselves as NFL fans.

"There is a hardcore following," said Bagley, who traveled with a group of Vikings officials for last year's international series game between the New England Patriots and St. Louis Rams.

"They love the NFL, and they love the real thing â?? not preseason games, not World League of American Football. They love the real, competitive, intense drama of NFL football."

Parsons offered a more conservative estimate. But he confirmed the number of UK fans is in the "multiple millions" even when excluding those who, for instance, only watch the Super Bowl.

"We really target in on those," Parsons said, "and there's well over 2 million of those that we've identified in the UK, and we have a significant proportion of those in our NFL database and we communicate with them frequently. We know a significant portion of those will also watch the games week-in, week-out, and buy all of our products."

The league also has offices in Canada, Mexico and China, plus a significant presence in Japan. The Buffalo Bills have played a regular-season game per season in Toronto since 2008. The 49ers and Arizona Cardinals played in Mexico City in 2005. A preseason game in Shanghai could be next.

But there is heavy focus on the UK market, where the Wembley event itself is the highest-grossing merchandise day that exists for any event in the country, Parsons said. The NFL is expanding its events throughout the fall, including an upcoming tour with the Lombardi Trophy, and technological advances are allowing more fans to access games played abroad.

Several UK networks now air NFL games live. The NFL RedZone channel is available. Fans can pay 100 pounds for NFL Game Pass (the UK's version of DirecTV's Sunday Ticket). Even HBO's "Hard Knocks" aired this year on Channel 4.

Logistical issues aside, perhaps the biggest unknown when discussing the possibility of placing a team in London is whether UK fans from far beyond the city limits would be willing to make the trip for 10 home games a year, rather than just once or twice.

"It's a very small percentage of expats, Americans, coming to the game and a very high percentage of British people who come from all over the country to get some of their NFL fill," Parsons said.

"Will people come to every game if they're coming down from Scotland? I don't know. But I think we want to really focus in and build that fan base in the surrounding area of London as much as we possibly can.

"I don't know if it ever gets to a point where we can truly answer your question. But certainly, I'd like to see the momentum we've got at the moment continue."